Stretchers, body boards and gurneys are frequently used for transporting patients to an emergency vehicle or to a treatment facility. Such devices suffer from various disadvantages. For instance, when transporting a patient by a hand carried stretcher, body board, or stokes basket, a bouncy effect is generally experienced during a walking or running gait. Carrying a relatively heavy patient over long distances can cause the bearers of the stretcher, body board, or stokes basket to fatigue. To overcome such difficulties, wheeled stretcher carriers have been devised to support a stretcher and allow rolling transportation of a patient on the stretcher to an emergency vehicle (i.e., ambulance) or to an aid station or other treatment facility.
Many stretcher carriers appear in the prior art. The one thing all stretcher carriers have in common is a clamp for securing a stretcher or the like to the carrier. In any emergency situation, time is of the essence. A clamp must allow an attendant to quickly and securely fasten the stretcher to the carrier. As a carrier may be called upon to traverse rough terrain, the clamp must hold securely when subjected to bumps and jolts during the transportation of the stretcher bound patients across rough terrain.
In addition, a good clamp must not be deformed in any manner so as to jam as the clamp and stretcher carrier traverse rough terrain.
Finally, a good clamp must readily be openable when it is time to remove the stretcher or the like from the stretcher carrier.
Clamps of the prior art have suffered from one or more of these problems.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a stretcher clamp that may be quickly closed to reliably secure a stretcher or the like to a stretcher carrier. The clamp should not open when the stretcher carrier traverses rough terrain nor should the clamp deform and/or jam. Finally, the clamp must be simple and fast to open.